We now know the basic ins-and-outs of the spring components in our race car, but we need to apply that to the car and get started with our race setup. “Where do I start?” is probably the most common question asked, and in almost every case, the answer is the spring package. We have to look at many different things that will affect the spring rates and consider all of them, eventually winding up with a spring package we are comfortable with. If the springs aren’t set properly, it will lead to handling issues during the race such as handling swings from imbalance, over- or under-worked tires, and possibly even a crash! This article and the next one will look at getting your springs arranged leading up to the holiday break.

Aerodynamics and Minimum Ride Heights

Almost every racing series in the world has some form of ride height rule

Most cars will have a minimum ride height defined by the series rules. Whether that’s 7″ or 7 centimeters, there is no getting around it while you’re in the garage. For the most part, ride height rules could be deemed more traditional than necessary, since most teams have found ways around the ride height rules. Overcoming the limitations presented by ride height rules is the first thing we need to consider when choosing our springs, and how we go about overcoming those rules can often be the difference between a leading car and a mid-field car.

First, we’ll look at an aerodynamically-dependent car, or one that relies heavily on downforce (or sideforce) to get it around the track. Formula cars, NASCAR’s Cup/Xfinity/Truck cars, Prototypes, and, to an extent, some GT and short-track oval cars. Aside from the NASCAR Cup car, we’re going to have ride height rules that keep the car elevated above what we want. For best aerodynamic performance, we want the car low, so we need to get around the ride height rules quickly once we’re on track and out of the inspection bay. We have three options in this situation: 1) Deal with it, 2) Bumpstops, or 3) Coil-binding.

V8 Supercars rarely run low against the track and instead rely on the suspension for the majority of the grip. Plus, high ride heights allow them to hammer taller kerbs!

The first option, “Deal with it” is the common choice for cars without bumpstops (or limited bumpstop options). If you don’t have the option to effectively drop the car and keep it from slamming into the track, the best option is probably going to be going with springs that will keep the car off the ground, but are soft enough to give the necessary mechanical grip to get around the track. A common example of this in the iRacing service would be the V8 Supercars. The Supercars generate a bit of downforce, but lowering the car for aerodynamic purposes can often hurt laptimes more than raising it up and sacrificing a bit of aerodynamics for mechanical grip.

The second option involves dropping onto bumpstops from aerodynamic load. This is very common in high-downforce racing cars, may or may not be adjustable in the garage screen. In these situations, softer springs can be used with the intent that they’ll collapse under aerodynamic loads and the car will ride on the bumpstops in high-speed corners, producing a lot of downforce. As the car slows down for a slower corner, it may rise off the bumpstops and use the soft springs for mechanical grip. Keep in mind that bumpstops are often very high rate springs, usually progressive, so a coil spring of 1000 lb/in (175 N/mm) will often be much softer than whatever the car was riding on as a bumpstop.

Finally, we have the dreaded coil-bind. I did an entire article on the basic mechanics of coil-binding here: http://www.iracing.com/commodores-garage-7-coil-binding/. For the crash course on coil-binding, we simply want the car to have an extremely soft spring rate so that, once it’s up to speed on the track, the springs collapse quickly from downforce loads. The result is that the entire spring is compressed to where all of the coils are touching each other in some way, preventing any further downward travel from the springs. This is extremely effective, however head-scratchingly complex to figure out and make it work properly. While coil-binding went out the door in Sprint Cup following the 2014 ride height rule elimination, it is still present in Xfinity and Truck, whether by full-coil bind or half-coil “pig-tail” binding. We don’t have the means for half-coil binding in iRacing, but full-coil is still a viable option in these cars.

NASCAR’s trucks still have relatively high ride height rules, but expensive pig-tail coil-bind springs combine the aerodynamic effectiveness of coil-binding with the high rate needed for big speedways.

Finally, we have the case where the car is not an aerodynamically-dependent workhorse at all. Cars like the Legend Car, the Modifieds, or the Lotus 49 all have very little aerodynamic dependence (or none at all). In these situations, the thing to consider is how far we need to drop the Center of Gravity to produce a good-handling car, if we need to at all. Again, it’s going to be a balance of advantages and disadvantages for these cars, so the only thing that will produce a good base to work from is old-fashioned testing. That said, none of these cars will behave well with excessive spring rates. Spring rates that would be considered extremely soft for the cars in the other three categories will be perfect for this range of vehicles. All we’re looking for here is mechanical grip, and that will come from softer springs.

Once we know what suspension system we’re working with, we should know how we could attempt to get around the ride height rules, if we can at all. With that known, we can look through our range of spring options to choose what springs to pair up with our aerodynamic needs. On some cars, such as the Mercedes GT3 car, this range can be extremely small, where it can be a relatively wide range on other cars, such as the BMW Z4 GT3 car. Driver preference can also be a factor, especially in whether or not the driver wants a stiff or soft car. If the driver wants a softer spring package, the car will need to be raised up higher to start, while a stiffer spring package will be just fine with lower ride heights.

Track Characteristics

The other major factor in spring choice is the track itself. Is it bumpy? Smooth? Are there hills? Is it flat as a board? While the aerodynamics and ride height rules for a car will determine the general range of springs to run, the track itself will narrow this down even further. Again, as is with every other thing, testing is the only way to determine what springs you like and what will work best for you.

A major track characteristic that will affect your spring choice is how much of the track is high-speed and how much is low-speed. If the track has a lot of high-speed sections, such as Monza or La Sarthe, you’re going to want to go with a relatively stiff spring package and set the car to generate a decent amount of downforce while having the car trimmed out for low-drag. Soft springs at these types of tracks will produce a large amount of vertical movement in the car, which can result in a lot of drag if the car starts moving excessively. Onboard videos from Formula 1 cars at Monza are filled with the sounds of the car skipping along the pavement, as well as virtually no movement from the suspension arms at all. The opposite would be somewhere like Zandvoort or Summit point, where slow corners dominate a lap. At these tracks it may be difficult to generate a lot of downforce, and you’re going to want to lean more on mechanical grip and soft springs to run a quick lap time. In general, you can think of the spring rates going up as downforce goes down as a general rule of thumb.

Even with ride height rules removed from NASCAR’s Cup series, we still see higher ride heights at bumpy tracks, such as this picture of the #24 at Atlanta. This is a stark contrast to the low-slug setups seen at tracks like Phoenix, Michigan, and now Kentucky.

On ovals we would consider the same thing: Higher-speed tracks will need stiffer springs. Big 1.5-mile speedways will need a stiffer overall spring package than a short half-mile oval, and the same rule about downforce-vs-spring rate will apply. However, we have to further consider the amount of banking on the oval as well. Higher-banked tracks such as Charlotte or Bristol will produce very high vertical loads, and to keep the car from slamming into the race track we need high-rate springs. Small, low-banked tracks will see the lowest spring rates, and real-world rear springs under 200 lb/in are not uncommon in the upper levels of NASCAR at a track like Martinsville.

One of the rare things that applies to both road and oval racing is the bumpiness and grip level of the track surface itself. Smooth, high-grip tracks can allow much stiffer spring rates and a more “aggressive” approach to generating downforce. Old, worn-out tracks like Kentucky Speedway or Lime Rock Park will produce a need to deal with bumps to keep the car from jumping around and eventually finding its way to a retaining wall. Softer springs are necessary for these tracks to keep all four tires on the pavement, as well as reducing complaints from the driver. A track such as Kansas Speedway or Circuit of the Americas, where the pavement is very smooth and void of large bumps, doesn’t produce the need to deal with those bumps and a stiffer spring package can be used.

Putting it all together, forming a baseline

Once all of these options are considered, a general idea of what springs to use should be very apparent. For instance, if we’re setting up a NASCAR Cup car at Charlotte, we know that we don’t need to get around ride heights (soft springs aren’t necessary), we would like as much downforce as possible (stiff springs are desirable), the track isn’t extremely bumpy (stiff springs), and the banking is quite high (stiff springs). Looking at all that, we’re going to probably run a stiff spring package at Charlotte and attempt to generate as much downforce as possible while all but ignoring mechanical grip. However, Atlanta Motor Speedway has the same banking as Charlotte, is the same length as Charlotte, but is tremendously bumpy in comparison. We could take our Charlotte spring package to Atlanta, but it would likely bounce around and we’d have no grip. Instead, we need to adapt with softer springs for the bumps, which means we’ll need to raise the car a little bit to keep it from hitting the track, and we’ll sacrifice a bit of aerodynamic grip in lieu of some mechanical grip.

I cannot stress how important real “testing” is, even in sim-racing. Showing up to tracks and building setups based on what you’ve done previously won’t get you anywhere. You have to be willing to try something new to find more speed, and “testing” these changes and ideas should be part of your season plan.

I tend to beat the testing horse beyond death, but I cannot stress how important it is to actually test various configurations. A lot of sim-racers have the idea that “testing” is simply where you go build a setup for a track, which it isn’t. To get what is necessary to build a setup week-by-week and know how to adapt a car for different conditions requires true testing. If you’re going to race a new car (or if you feel you still struggle with a car you want to drive), find a track you like, and try all kinds of different things to see what works, and what responds best to you as the driver. Try stiff springs, try soft springs, try a combination of both! Move the car up and down on ride heights, see if something clicks and you hit on something that you’re comfortable with. Once you have the car to your liking at that track, that setup becomes the “baseline”. Those springs are what you’re going to base every other setup on until there’s a major change to the car (such as aerodynamics, tires, or weight). Starting over with a new setup at a new track (or doing the “setup dance”) simply puts you back at Step 1 every single time, and you have to re-learn what works with that spring package. In many cases, one spring will apply to many tracks, and in some cases, it will apply for an entire season. So don’t over-think it, and never throw springs out just because you’ve gone somewhere new!

William Byron’s trailer, docked on this day at the Pocono Raceway, opens into a hallway leading to a back room with a work desk and a mounted television. He is just an hour away from hitting the two-and-a-half-mile track in his No. 9 truck and securing pole position for the weekend’s race in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Tomorrow, he will win it, leading 44 of the 60 laps.

Byron is just 18, a freshman at Liberty University—his sponsor as well as his school—and a driver on the side. Still, success has come quickly. He has been at or near the top of the standings for most of the season, with a series-best seven wins and 11 top-five finishes. And while he finished fifth in the chase for the series championship, Byron had more than twice as many wins as any other driver. Next year, he’ll leave Kyle Busch Motorsports for Hendrick Motorsports before moving up to the Xfinity Series, just one rung below the top level, NASCAR’s Sprint Cup.

At the rate Byron is progressing, he’ll race there soon enough.

The story behind Byron’s rapid rise begins in a room similar to the one adjoining his trailer. Five years ago, he wasn’t racing at all. Unlike some in his sport, he does not come from a premier racing family. He didn’t get behind a wheel when he was a small child.

Instead, Byron learned to drive indoors, in his childhood bedroom, dominating online races on an iRacing simulator. And that could portend a future of young racing fans leveraging technology to become bona fide drivers, and young drivers doing the same to build up their on-track careers.

For the second week in a row, VRS Coanda Simsport #81 has come out on top in the Blancpain Endurance Series. Comprised of Mitchell deJong, Philip Stamm, and David Williams, the trio drove the Coanda Audi R8 LMS to victory from pole position during Round 3 at Circuit Zolder.

Leading for all but one of the 61 lap online race, Coanda #81 accrued 323 points from the victory which saw them cross the line with a nearly 13.5 second gap. With deJong taking the bulk of the driving duties, the Red Bull Global Rallycross driver was certainly the man to beat as he not only led his team to victory but also secured the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1:26.658 – the only lap time to cross into the 26s.

Taking the second step on the podium for Round 3 was Iberica Racing Interactiv4. A duo consisteing of Jon Oncala and Nester Garcia Jr., the two simracers piloted their BMW Z4 GT3 to victory in their respective split from pole position as well. Leading for 58 laps, the duo would win with a margin of just over 2.5 seconds and accrued 316 championship points in the process.

Currently sitting in fifth overall, Iberica seems to be getting into form late in the six-race season with previous rounds seeing them further down in the finishing order. Still, the strong finish at Zolder plays into their hands as the team heads to Brands Hatch for Round 4.

Occupying the final step of the Round 3 podium is TTLR Red drivers Jake Burton and Joshua K Rogers. Driving the Mercedes AMG GT3, the Aussie squad finished second to Coanda in the top split but also over 18 seconds ahead of their closest competitors.

Although currently in 12th on the overall leaderboard, TTRL haven’t had the best of luck up until now with a bad finish at Silverstone seeing them finish in 21st. Like Iberica, however, the TTRL duo will be aiming to match or improve their latest performance in the remaining races this season.

Standings

With two of the three rounds going their way so far, VRS Coanda Simsport #81 currently leads the championship with 948 points. Trailed by both Pure Racing team Red (925) and Blue (921), ineX Racing Blue hold onto fourth with 888 points ahead of Iberica who follow close behind with 879.

With Round 4 set to take place at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, the 90-minute race has historically been the location for heated battles due to the narrow track and limited passing locations. With only a few remaining races this season, however, drivers will have to pick their battles lest they throw away their championship and GT Series endeavors.

Bono Huís takes both the win and the overall points lead of the iRacing Road to Pro Series.

The iRacing Road to Pro Series wraps up another week of online Grand Prix racing as the series completes Round 5 at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, TX.

For 56 laps, the 73 drivers who participated attempted to negotiate the technical circuit but in the top split, it was late race pass from Bono Huis which earned him the overall win.

Starting back in seventh, Huis certainly appeared to have his work cut out for him. Throughout this season, however, Huis hasn’t been the best in qualifying. With only one starting position inside the top-five as well as one outside the top-ten, Huis has always been a charger and has yet to finish below his starting position.

Round 5 was no different.

As the laps ticked away, Huis had moved up to third by lap 16. Moving up to second soon after, Huis maintained the P2 position just behind Cem Bolukbasi until lap 50. Making the overtake for the lead, Huis jetted away as he went on to win Round 5 with over a two second gap.

Accruing 331 championship points, this is the second win of the season for Huis which also puts him in the championship lead as he overtakes Marcus Jensen by 60 points.

Marcus Jensen finished in sixth during Round 5 after starting from eighth.

For Bolukbasi, it was a strong display from the Turkish sim racer who started the race from third. Bolukbasi has certainly been a consistent driver throughout the season with his 11th placed finish at Suzuka the only chink in his armor. Still winless, however, Bolukbasi appeared to be on his way to victory while leading 24 of the 56 laps. With Huis on his rear wing, Bolukbasi would eventually be overtaken by the Dutchman and would have to settle for the second spot on the podium.

Still, this is Bolukbasi’s second podium thus far and his fourth top-five as well. Maintaining his third place spot on the overall leaderboard, Bolukbasi is slowly closing in on the number two spot.

Taking the final step on the Round 5 podium was Irishman Jamie Fluke. Starting from pole position, Fluke would lead the first 25 laps until a pit stop. Exiting pit lane in fourth, Fluke would pick up one more spot and maintain third for the remainder of the online race.

Finishing less than two seconds behind Bolukbasi, it was another consistent finish for the Irishman as he also moves up one spot on the overall leaderboard.

Round 6

For the drivers of the iRacing Road to Pro Series, they’ll be happy to enjoy a much needed off-week before the series tackles Autodromo Nazionale Monza in two weeks’ time. For now, Huis will certainly be enjoying his view from the top of the leaderboard with 1534 points followed by Jensen with 1474. Bolukbasi holds onto third with 1452 as Fluke moves up to fourth with 1285 ahead of Mack Bakkum with 1203.

Bursting through a thick, cumulus cloud, a cloud like a pirate ship sailing on a vast turquoise sea of sky was a spaceship. The spaceship hurtled toward planet Digitoid, seemingly out of control; its shell like a boomerang, gliding between pockets of air like a paper jet, twirling, whirling, spinning and bumping round, round, and around.

“We’re going to crash!” exclaimed one of its passengers, a short specimen of the race of green beings known as Truffleslugs.

“No we’re not,” the tall one said, casually.

After successfully traversing the vast expanses of the Universes, sneakily zipping along in the HOV lane of Strawberry Cream Lane—unticketed, the two Truffleslugs in the boomerang-shaped spaceship now found themselves headed for a city… er, careening toward a city.

When the Digitarians on the street heard the noise that sounded like a coughing fit of a nuclear reactor, they looked up. Some shielded their eyes and squinted. Others wrinkled their brows and shook their heads. Gasps. Screams. Pointing and scuttlebutt.

The spire on top The People’s Bank of Free and Equal Loans crashed to the ground like a dart falling from a dartboard made of crappy Styrofoam. The tall pointy thing rolled down the street as if it were a great log kicked by a mudslide with a sense of humor. Digitarians scattered like people in a movie theater after hearing a fire alarm. Chaos.

The chaos eventually lifted, however, and the spire disappeared into an underground parking garage—quite the feat for the fifty-five foot tall architectural object. Many of the onlooking Digitarians experimentally patted their arms and poked at their legs. Uninjured.

“W-what was that?” a man called out.
“I don’t know,” someone answered.
“I think it was a Crossover,” another bystander said.
“Yeah, I think it was, too.”

“Look,” the man cried out, pointing to the row of buildings on Same Street, “it was a Crossover on a mission,” he said. “A mission of equality. That ugly and different steeple was the only thing keeping this here street from being more beautiful than that Nembrandt painting at The State Museum. All the buildings are the same now. Each one squarish, squattish, and made of brick, their roofs now perfectly flat and all the same, like gingerbread houses made by an Assembly Line 3000 Plus One… This is gorgeous, my friends. Come, let us pray.”

And so a small group of Digitairans, eyes wide, hair standing on end, dropped to their knees and started mumbling words of worship, praying to a Crossover that they thought was egalitarian royalty.

Inside the Truffleslugs spaceship, the mood was anything but fair and equal.

“See,” the short green one said, “I told you we were going to crash.”
“No way.”
“Well what was that then?” the short one asked, gesturing behind with his thumb.
“That was nothing.”

The short Truffleslug craned his green scaly neck and peered out the spaceship’s window. A small section of the curved wing appeared to be damaged. He slapped his forehead incredulously, turned round, shrieked, and shouted: “We’re going to crash!”

“I don’t think—”

Dirt and grass and rocks and all the elements of planet Digitoid’s earth exploded into the air like a Fourth of July grand finale. The nuclear reactor had quit coughing, sort of like a dead, crashed spaceship. The short Truffleslug cleared his cobwebs and said: “What was that?”

“Oh…well… yeah, that was definitely a crash,” the tall one said.
“You’re an idiot.”
“No, you’re an idiot!”
“Ugh, I hate the digital world. It feels so… so… programmed.”
“Well we’ve got to be here. Get used to it.”
“I know, I know.”
“Get to work! Switch to secondary propulsion.”

The short Truffleslug slung his one arm into the air like an Elephant with a skillful trunk. He flopped it against the spaceship’s control panel and tried to flip some switches. Sounds of failure ensued.

“I can’t do it,” he groaned. “My arm sucks for this kind of work.”
“Should have got the surgery,” the tall one suggested.
“I’d never let those freaks carve me up, man.”
“Then get out the way, idiot.”

The tall Truffleslug popped the short one in the chops with one of his limbs, and with his other seven green arms, began pushing buttons on the control panel. Lights flickered. Sounds of a spaceship coming to life rattled through its boomerang-shaped shell and spluttered into the atmosphere. The short Truffleslug looked on in amazement.

“Maybe I will get that surgery,” he said, enthusiastically.
“That’ll never happen.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re not doing it anymore.”
“Huh?”
“Limited Edition procedure, doofus. Your time’s up.”

The short Truffleslug nodded solemnly and tried to cross his one lonely arm.

“Hold on,” said the tall one, earnestly.

The boomerang-shaped spaceship bucked and jerked and rid itself of planet Digitoid’s soil like a dog shaking off an army of fleas. A whirring noise like an amplifier with a bad ground strap began to build. The spaceship levitated, it rose higher, lifting off the ground and racing toward the turquoise sky.

“Well this better work,” the short green Truffleslug said as the spaceship once again began to dart through the clouds. “I can’t stomach the thought of another runner-up finish in The Multiverse Super Bowl of Simulation… Where’s the virus? We need those secrets.”

“I don’t know. Pull up the Tracker and find out.”

“I can’t,” he said, “remember?” The little green Truffleslug waved his one arm around like a bird with a broken wing.

“You’re such an idiot,” the tall one blurted out. He sighed. “Take the controls.”

So with one arm on the joystick, and eight arms punching buttons on the control panel like an octopus searching a reef, the location of the virus was found.

“Interesting,” the tall one said, “it appears our virus is going around in circles… slowly.”

“Scoot don’t like drive slow.”

“What ya’awnt me to do about it?” Dale said, his voice screeching inside of Scoot’s helmet. “Hell, at least ya ain’t lose no positions yet. Yinz is still in fourth. Right where ya started. Multiverse International Raceway, a place our old guy Ace would’ve likened to Phoenix, well, it can be a tricky place to get around, son.”

Dale, from atop the team’s pit box near the end of pit road, stared off into the desert and thought: Shoot, I wonder if that fellar’s made it back home yet? Then he stopped thinking about his ex-driver and spoke into his headset: “There’ll be plenty’uh yellas at this joint, son. This one here’s a quikie. Yinz’ll be back up to speed before ya can blink.”

Right after Scoot blinked, the green flag re-emerged. And when The Black Dahlia Murder/Snap-on Chevy thundered into Turn One, it was back up to speed, trapped in the outside line, trying to sneak into the bottom lane. But Danny Burdette’s Silverado and Greg Waters Toyota Tundra were digging hard, playing defense, shouting at Scoot’s truck: Stay high you miserable bucket of bolts! We make the rules round here!

And so Scoot kept his race truck in the high line, until exiting Turn Four, when Corbin Leiby’s truck spat out exhaust fumes and said: Ho-hum, ho-hum, I think I’ll scrape against the wall, the wall, and slow down this big black-and-white bum!

Scoot saw the sparks. But he couldn’t avoid the slowing truck of Leiby. Crunch!

Scoot wanted to radio to Dale and complain, but when he sailed off into Turn One, his hands were full, wrestling a race truck that didn’t want to turn, possibly from the damage he incurred on the right front, or, quite possibly, because of an unfocused driver.

Regardless of what caused The Black Dahlia Murder/Snap-on Chevy to skate up the racetrack, the result was all the same: contact with the outside wall and several roaring race machines passing him on the inside.

On lap eight, Scoot’s listless charge to the front met a set of carbon ceramics. The yellow flag flew for the second time of the race.

A lap later, when pit road opened, Scoot steered The Black Dahlia Murder/Snap-on Silverado off the racetrack and trotted it down pit lane. He bumped the grille of his race truck up against the neon pit board and kept his foot firmly on the brake. The crewmen did their thing. The driver did his thing. And when the crew chief did his thing, yelling into his headset, “Go, go, go,” the black-and-white race truck didn’t do its thing.

Dale slammed his fist into the TV monitor in front of him and watched another race truck pass by From A Dig Motorsports’s pit stall.

“Hell,” he said, “grab them hammers, boys. Pound out that damn right front.”

The crewmen swung their hammers with more accuracy than Bob Vila after a retake.
The sheet metal flattened like soda cans under a galloping herd of woolly mammoths. The Black Dahlia Murder/Snap-on Chevy launched from its pit box.

The restart came on lap 13, and when the field charged into One, Dale cued his mic and said: “I hope yinz’z happy now, you stupid SOB. We’z all the way back in thirteenth!”

When the field romped down the backstretch, Scoot tried to punch a hole through the floorboard with his right foot. He failed in creating a hole, but as far as hooking up the truck’s Goodyears and blasting off, he succeeded. The Black Dahlia Murder/Snap-on Chevrolet snuck in between a pair of Toyota Tundras and muscled its way into the top-ten.

Two laps later, another victim. This time it was John Carpenter pushing high and opening the door for Scoot. Scoot’s Bowtie straightened itself and zoomed past in the low line. Ninth.

Before Scoot could continue making moves, he had to slow and march his truck down pit road again. The third yellow flag of the race waved for a single-truck spin off Turn Four.

The race off pit road was close-quartered, but when The Black Dahlia Murder/Snap-on Chevy blended back onto the racetrack, it found itself in sixth position. From A Dig Motorsports’s pit crew had busted-off an eleven second pit stop, gaining their driver two spots on the one-mile Multiverse International Raceway.

Restart, lap 19: The Black Dahlia Murder race truck started on the inside row, looking for room to run, for room to pass, for room to charge to the front.

But after three laps of green flag action, Scoot got passed up. Danny Burdette and his lime green Chevy bounced back from an earlier spin and pounced to the inside, sliding in front of Scoot down the backstretch.

Another lap, and the field inched farther away.

Another lap, farther, and farther, and farther the black-and-white race truck did fall.

The green flag wrinkled in the wind with only three laps remaining. Scoot buried the throttle and spun the tires. Burdette drove away.

But exiting Turn Two, the gap between Burdette and Scoot, shrunk. Burdette’s lime green race truck wobbled like a toddler learning to walk, shifting one way, then the other. Scoot thought Burdette was going to spin out, looping his truck down the racetrack, down out of harm’s way, down out of the racing groove.

But, unfortunately, Burdette overcorrected like a toddler learning how to walk and fell down, or, in this case, slid up the racetrack and directly in front of The Black Dahlia Murder/Snap-on Chevy.

Scoot plowed into the side of Burdette—T-bone, crinkling the nose of the black-and-white Bowtie and caving in the side of Burdette’s truck, pushing, pushing the lime green Silverado down the backstretch like some kind of repulsive symbiotic street sweeper.

Spotter: “The tower is tellin’ me you need to pass them trucks that got around ya. Line up behind the leader, bud. You’re still in second.”

The checkers fell on a field of race trucks going round and round… slowly, the pace car out front, its lights blinking like a rolling pot of gold promoting safety.

Race over.

After Scoot had shed his helmet, removed his head and neck restraint device, and clambered from his truck, he met Dale’s finger poking into his chest.

“Yinz is dumb as they come, ya damn murderer,” Dale bellowed. “Hell, if yinz would’uh listened to me and hit pit road for tires, yinz could’uh had the grip ya needed to steer out’uh harm’s way and win the damn race! But yinz is stupid and won’t listen to nobody. Think you’re so smart and special, staying up there at The State Hospital all the damn time and—”

“Boss,” Vanilla Myers said, rounding the corner of the big rig, “take it easy. We still finished second.”

“The hell you say,” said Dale indignantly. “Yinz ain’t going nowhere but to the next racetrack. Utopian-Digitoid Speedway. It’s the final race of the season. Hell, after that, then yinz’z going back to the ’spital… forever.”

After the last stitch was sewn into RJ’s head, Carly shuddered and looked down at her crimson hands.

“Scared of a little blood?” Rock asked.

Carly shuddered again.

“I thought you were a surgeon, little lady?”
“Like, I’m not… duh.”

Rock sighed and poked at RJ interrogatively. His body lay silent and still on the holographic operating table.

“Well I hope you were enough of a surgeon for the reversal of his anterior supplement of the prefrontal cortex to take hold,” Rock said. “This momo looks sketchier than a three-dollar bill, y’all.”

Carly walked over to a blue-green phosphorescence sink, a hologram, and stuck her hands under a stream of flowing water. “Honestly, like, what’s next?” she said, turning her head and looking over her shoulder.

“Well,” Rock said, pursing his lips, “considering this momo actually wakes up, you’ll have to get him to the Programmers. Get him to the Wormhole Generator and back to Earth.”

“What did you say?” Carly asked, vigorously rubbing her hands in the sink. She raptly watched the cherry Kool-Aid-colored water vanish into the drain.

Rock spoke up: “You’ll have to take him to the Programmers. That’s where he has to go.”

Carly fingered the slit in her lagoon-colored pants and patted her hands dry.

Rock walked over to a mirror on the wall, a mirror that used to be a painting of six-
shooters snarling in midair, dueling, shooting to the death. He plucked the pocket-sized hologram that was stuck to the mirror like pulling an apple from a tree. He fanned it to his face. He smiled. Then he handed the map to Carly and said: “Here, this will take you where you need to go.”

“Like, I don’t need that.”
“Yes you do.”

Carly blew out a breath of hot air, she cocked her hips, tapped a foot and said: “Honestly, I really wanted to help him. To be a hero. To break out of the collectivism that is Critical-Utopian Nationalism and become my own person. To return the first Interlooper, ever, in all of history, back to his homeland across the pond. But this,” she said, gesturing toward the holographic map, “this is just too much. Like, there’s no beings called Programmers that created everything. That created me. There’s no Wormhole Generator. This is lunacy! I can’t… I’m done.”

“Look,” Rock said, “I don’t know what they taught you at Utopian University, but I know the truth. The Programmers do exist. They’ve created everything in this simulation.”

Carly pinched her arm. “Like, this isn’t any kind of simulation, bub. This is real life. I’m a real girl made from flesh and bone… and how would you know about the Programmers?”

Rock tapped the map to the palm of his hand like he was trying to figure out what to order from a carry out menu. “You’re forgetting something,” he said. “I’m an Interlooper. An Interlooper that’s been sucked through a computer screen, an Interlooper that’s seen things you could only dream of. Crooked sticks of gleaming brilliance, booms and bangs and fizzles and pops, tunnels, vast tunnels of zebra-striped colors of every hue and shade imaginable on the entire light spectrum. I’ve seen things, little lady. I know things.”

Carly fidgeted and said, “Like, you sound crazy. Honestly, I just want to… to… I just want to scream!” Carly wailed like a car alarm and threw her hands in the air like a woman asking for answers from above.

Then, “S-Stacey!”

Rock shuffled toward the operating table and poked at RJ.

“You’re awake,” he said. “The Chosen One is awake!”

“Yeah, but like, I thought he’d say something different.”

“S-Stacey!”

“Ah, just give him a minute,” Rock croaked. “He just had his head split open.”

And so after what seemed like a minute—purely speculative on Rock’s behalf because Time didn’t exist on planet Digitoid, RJ shot up on the operating table like a man waking from a nightmare, his big belly plump like a sack of fat; his left arm robotic like it was made from carbon fiber.

Rock hung his head in dismay and miserably folded his arms. “I knew you weren’t a surgeon,” he muttered, “and now you’ve ruined the Chosen One!”

“Honestly, like, I told you I wasn’t a surgeon, bub.”

“Oh don’t give me that,” Rock said, “that getup you’ve got on makes you look just like one. And what was with all that prattle about you being a hero and all? Huh, huh? You’re just like all these other Digitarians, dumb and worthless and digital and an expert at wielding a knife in the back—”

“You better watch it,” said Carly, impatiently. “I’m not digital and I don’t stab people in the back and, like, I am a hero, my daddy used to tell me that and a whole lot of other stuff…”

As Rock and Carly feuded, RJ hopped down from the operating table. When his feet hit the floor, a great storm of light collected in the ceiling, its jagged and bulbous swaths of luminescence swirling and making noise, a noise like a God slurping the last bits of a milkshake through a straw.

Carly and Rock fell silent. They watched as the swirling storm of light pulled the
operating table into its grasp, the medical stool flying home like a piece of metal to a cosmic magnet, the pocket-sized map in Rock’s hand turning to paper; all the blue-green holograms coming unstuck and soaring toward the book that lay open on the floor, like ghosts caught in the beams of a quartet of proton packs, returning to the trap, returning to The Interlooper’s Guide To The Infinite Multiverse.

When the slurping noise stopped and the light returned to nothing more than a few flickering tubes of fluorescent incandescence, RJ looked around at the dirty popcorn-textured walls, studied the dopey paintings, gazed at a rickety table made from a wagon wheel and a piece of plywood that may, or may not have been glued down, stared at a few five-gallon buckets that looked like they’d make incredibly uncomfortable seats, and said: “Hell, I’m ready to get outta here!”

Rock grabbed RJ by the shoulder, pulled him close, and bear hugged him. “I knew this momo here was the Chosen One,” he blurted out.

“Guys,” RJ said, squirming free of Rock’s smothering hug, “knock it off. I ain’t know who in the hell this Chosen One is, but, hell, if a fellar named Rublix, who’s just tryin’ to get home to his daughter, Stacey, is the Chosen One, then I’m your man.”

“You’re the man, RJ,” Rock said. “Now it’s time for you to return and spread the message
of ‘We’re Not Alone!’ to everyone. I mean, even if you aren’t that good of a guitar player, we musicians need to stick together… am I right or what?”

“Rock, I ain’t got a damn clue what in the hell yinz is talkin’ ‘bout.”

“Honestly, like, I thought Stacey was just some floozy who’d managed to rock your world one night at a casino, kissing on you and whispering into your ear, drinking, partying, you know, that sort of thing.”

“No,” RJ snapped back, “my little Stay-Stay ain’t no damn floozy! She’s my baby girl. Shoot she might be seventy-one, but she still my baby. And I need to get back, pronto.”

Rock flung open the door and trapped RJ and Carly into celebratory headlocks like a collegiate championship wrestler. He pulled them through the opening and swiveled their heads toward the stage.

Men with mops on their heads spun their hair in circles, faster, faster, and faster, trying to take off like helicopters, crunching chords and slapping root notes, mean muggin’ the few lonely souls in the audience. A man behind a drum set moved his arms wildly, his feet moving at two hundred and fifty beats per minute.

The band played on, buzzsawing, feasting on power chords and distortion, sweat, beer, water, energy from the blast beat.

“Like,” Carly said, “I thought this was a country ‘n’ western bar? Channel 6 BS News said this place was under siege.”

“You can’t believe everything you hear, little lady. We do some country nights, but this, this is why I’m here. Death metal. These cats here call themselves the Lawn Apes. Amazing stuff, don’t you think?”

RJ stood at the exit, the door wide open, rays of pink moonlight slicing in like knives made of flamingo feathers. He motioned for Carly.

“I got to go,” she said, partially covering her ears from the “musical” ruckus.

Rock walked Carly over to RJ and said, “Here, I almost forgot, you’ll need this.” He handed over the pocket-sized map. Carly looked at the map peevishly and stuck it in her back pocket. Rock gave RJ and Carly the horns and started hopping around like a frog on acid.

The door shut.

The Lawn Ape’s vocalist swung the microphone cable into the air like a severed jump rope. Then he growled:

There they go! There they go!Kill, kill, kill, kill!Murder, murder, murder!Can you understand what I’m screaming?

– Added some more pre-race information for drivers in the Drivers’ Meeting pre-race page.

– The Sporting Code URL has been updated.

– Fixed an error on the What’s Hot page that mistakenly showed Time Trial Sessions.

– Fixed navigation of the Quick Start Guide to allow smooth navigation transitions when viewing it after the initial required time.

Simulation

– Several settings for an upcoming feature named “Browser Mode” have been added to the “app.ini” file. These additional settings will be fully described when Browser Mode is released, and have no effect at this time.

Loading

– Track loading has been restructured to reduce the peak memory usage of the Simulator.

Race Control

– Fixed a bug where cutting a course to take the checkered flag would not properly award the black flag penalty due to scoring being finalized on the car before the cut course penalty was processed.

Dynamic Track

– The marbles texture has been updated to provide more accurate information on marble density.

– Fixed an issue that could allow the server to create track dust when processing client updates.

World State Triple Buffering

– This upgrade fundamentally alters some aspects of how the Sim’s “realtime”/”BG” thread (the one that keeps the world moving) and the Sim’s “drawing”/”FG” thread (the one that paints the frames) interact with each other. Virtually every UI widget, including the “3D world” widget, uses data from the realtime world to determine what should be drawn. How this data is safely copied for the FG to draw a frame so that it doesn’t get confused should the realtime world “wake up” and start advancing the world is now different.

– Previously, the FG would lock-out the BG, make its copy, enable the BG, and then draw its frame. The main problem with this method is that if the BG is in the middle of updating the world when the FG is ready to start a new frame, that “lock-out” must wait until the BG finishes updating the world. Only then can the FG make its copy. But that means the FG gets stalled, preventing it from drawing frames until that world update finishes. The lower-end your machine, or the more complex the world update (mostly the more cars in the session), the longer it takes the BG to finish its world update, and the more likely the FG will get stalled, and the lengthier the stall is likely to be, leading to choppiness in the frame rate.

– With the new method, the “copied” state information the FG uses to draw is instead generated by the BG itself when it finishes updating the world. And to keep the BG from overwriting the state the FG is currently using to draw a frame, that copied state information is triple-buffered (in fact, some things use triple-, some use quad-, and some use quintuple-buffering, depending on their needs). The mechanism that the FG and BG use to not step on each other’s toes is now “lockless” – meaning that neither thread “locks-out” the other thread in the normal course of business.

DirectX 9

– Our support for the DirectX 9 version of the Simulation has essentially ended. New features, such as the graphical enhancements that are part of dirt track racing, will only be implemented in the DirectX 11 version of the Sim. We will stop shipping a DX9 version of the Sim soon. If you are having issues running the DX11 version of the Sim, please work with our support team at support@iracing.com to resolve them.

DirectX 11

– Improved Alt+Enter so that it now attempts to transition back to the original full-screen monitor and original full-screen mode instead of transitioning to a screen mode on the monitor where the window is located when Alt+Enter is used.

– Fixed several bugs with Low Res. particles for multi-views.

– Fixed an issue where high detail mirrors at night tracks could cause the car reflections in the mirror to render without car paint and with missing polygons.

Weather

– A heat haze effect has been added to the environment. This effect aims to create the appearance of “heat shimmer”, a visible distortion in the air. This effect is tied into the ambient and track temperatures. This effect can be toggled on or off in Graphics options.

Driver

– Visor tear-offs have been added to all drivers of vehicles that do not have a windshield.

– – The default manual control for performing a visor tear-off is Alt+T.

– – Automatic visor tear-offs can be toggled on or off in the Options menu, and will occur when the helmet visor becomes excessively dirty.

– A first-pass of the hand-over-hand steering animation has been added to some vehicles. The list of vehicles includes:

– – Global Mazda MX-5 Cup

– – Legends Ford ’34 Coupe

– – McLaren MP4-30

– – NASCAR Camping World Chevrolet Silverado

– – NASCAR Camping World Toyota Tundra

– – NASCAR Sprint Cup Chevrolet SS

– – NASCAR Sprint Cup Ford Fusion

– – NASCAR Sprint Cup Toyota Camry

– – Street Stock

Spotter

– Two new options have been added to the “[SPCC]” section of the “app.ini” file that let you control how the default spotter behaves when you also have a live spotter spotting for you:

– – reduceVerbosityIfLive=1 ; Reduce the spotter’s chattiness if you also have a live spotter spotting for you.

– – muteSpotterIfLive=1 ; Mute your spotter if you also have a live spotter spotting for you.

Pit

– Pit team support members that are behind the wall are now animated for the player’s car (or focus car). These characters can be seen providing support and managing the team from behind the pit wall.

– – The “Pit Object Detail” setting in the Graphics Options menu works as follows for animated support characters:

– Many cars have stacks of tires which appear near their pit stall, placed among their other pit apparatus. These stacks were generalized and shared amongst all cars. Now, each car should have an accurate stack of tires which is appropriate to that car.

Pace Car

– The pace car has transformed from a Ford Mustang FR500S into a Ruf RT 12R.

– The official iRacing skin has returned to the pace car.

Replay

– All voice chat that you send or receive is now saved to the replay. To review it, activate the new “Replay Chat Review” control in the replay controls area on the Session screen. While active, you may continue to use the transmitter on your radio to talk, but the scanner part of your radio becomes disconnected from the radio’s speaker. Instead, the radio’s speaker is connected to the replay, and the voice chat that you hear, along with the notification of who is speaking and on what channel, comes from the replay. However, the scanner is still active, and any received messages continue to be saved to the replay.

– – The Radio black box (F10) will also indicate that your scanner has been disconnected from the speaker by flashing the SCANNER title, and graying-out all the radio channel names. Though when watching a saved replay, or watching the replay after the server disconnects you at the end of the session, the F10 black box is not changed in this way.

– – Voice chat review mode is automatically set to “ON” when you load a saved replay, and it is automatically set to “OFF” when you join a session. It is automatically set to “OFF” when you get into your car or when you begin “Spotting for team”.

– – The Options/Replay settings page in the Sim can be used to adjust which radio channels have their communications saved into the replay. By default, voice chat on all radio channels is saved to the replay. You can select to exclude communications on any custom channels you add to your radio. You can also select to exclude custom channels plus the @TEAM channel. Or you can select to disable saving any voice chat to the replay. Changing this selection takes effect without restarting the simulation, but will not erase any voice chat already saved in the replay, or cause prior messages that were not recorded earlier to be added to the replay.

– – – Remember, these settings only affect what gets saved to your own replay. They do not impact whether what you say gets saved to replays by anyone else in the session.

Video Capture

– The video capture API has been updated to work around an NVidia driver issue.

– – This should fix the issue where videos are coming out black using the most recent NVidia drivers.

Telemetry

– New telemetry variables, “PlayerTrackSurfaceMaterial” and “CarIdxTrackSurfaceMaterial” are now available that indicate what type of surface is under the car (concrete, sand, grass, etc.). Surface materials are defined in new “irsdk_TrkSurf enum.” This is measured relative to the center of the car, just as with the “PlayerTrackSurface enum” that indicates how the surface is scored (race, pit, offtrack, etc.).

– New telemetry variables, “TireLF_RumblePitch”, “TireLR_RumblePitch”, “TireRF_RumblePitch”, and “TireRR_RumblePitch” are now available. These represent the pitch in Hz produced by the tire going over a rumble strip, or 0 if the tire is currently not on a rumble strip.

– A new telemetry variable, “PushToPass” has been added which reports the state of the Push to Pass button.

– A new telemetry variable, “dcMGUKDeployModeToggle” has been added that indicates if the in-car MGU-K deploy mode is set to fixed(0) or adaptive(1).

– New 360 Hz telemetry output has been implemented!

– – 360 Hz telemetry logging is disabled by default. The option for enabling 360 Hz telemetry logging has been added to the “app.ini” file here:

– – The XXshockDefl, XXshockVel and SteeringWheelTorque variables will now log out at 360 Hz, if enabled.

– – 3 new (memory mapped file) variables have also been added that always log at the rate of 360 Hz, but not to disk. This is for use by motion platforms and base shaker plugins:

– – – XXshockDefl_ST = Shock Position

– – – XXshockVel_ST = Shock Velocity

– – – SteeringWheelTorque_ST = Steering Wheel Torque

– – This data is output as a 6 element array, with a new flag variable header indicating that ist should be treated as a subdivision of time. You will need a new version of the ATLAS plugin to properly view the data, however the old plugin, and any older telemetry tool, should continue to read the data just fine.

– A new McLaren ATLAS importer version 1.05 is available for download from the member site. This adds some new unit conversion parameters and adds support for properly viewing 360 Hz telemetry.

EasyAntiCheat

– This build uses an updated version of EasyAntiCheat that should reduce the likelihood of encountering EAC alerts that are caused by internet infrastructure issues.

Peripherals

– Support has been added for controlling backlights of all Razer devices, Logitech mice, and single color keyboards. Code has been added to indicate the current flag.

– Added several new options the [External Displays] section of the “app.ini” file:

– – enableLEDFlags=1, Set to 0 to turn off LED backlight flags animations.

– – enableLEDShiftLights=1, Set to 0 to turn off LED backlight shift indicator animations.

– – enableLEDHotKeys=1, Set to 0 to turn off LED backlight hotkey indicators.

– – colorLEDHotKeysByType=1, Set to 0 to set all hotkeys to the same color.

– Fixed a bug with keyboard LED shift indicators on Logitech keyboards.

CARS

Aston Martin DBR9 GT1

– Weight has been increased by 70 kg to bring it closer to the minimum weight under which we understand it competed circa 2008.

– Minor adjustments have been made to the aero to bring overall performance back in line with the Chevrolet Corvette C6.R GT1.

– Downforce sensitivities of the rear wing have been modified to ensure the car does not reward minimum rear wing settings at all circuits.

– Fuel economy has been slightly increased.

– The external engine sound transitions between close and distant sounds for this vehicle have been improved.

– Fixed a bug that caused headlight flashing of opponent cars to be invisible.

– Season setups have been updated.

Audi R8 LMS GT3

– Fuel consumption has been slightly increased for GT3 BoP.

BMW Z4 GT3

– Slightly increased aero drag for GT3 BoP.

– Fuel consumption has been slightly reduced for GT3 BoP.

– Realigned the external mirrors with the appropriate bezel.

– Fixed an issue where a driver could not see all of the digits on the blue backlit display.

Chevrolet Corvette C6.R GT1

– Downforce sensitivities of the rear wing has been modified to ensure the car does not reward minimum rear wing settings at all circuits.

– Inner headlights are now enabled during the daytime.

– Season setups have been updated.

Chevrolet Corvette C7 Daytona Prototype

– The external engine sound transitions between close and distant sounds for this vehicle have been improved.

– The driver’s seatbelt has been fixed so it no longer protrudes out the bottom of the vehicle.

Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS

– Season setups have been updated.

Dallara DW12

– Increased tire wear for oval tracks to increase degradation and prevent running tires for multiple stints. Also, Indy tires are now used at Motegi to improve quality of racing.

– A pitboard has been added for this vehicle. The custom paint template has been updated to reflect this.

– Season setups have been updated.

Ford Falcon FG V8

– Construction and compound changes have been made to the vehicle tires. These changes should produce more realistic grip levels, improve drive-ability around the limit, increase degradation, and improve out lap grip in cold ambient conditions.

– Power steering has been increased to help balance this vehicle with similar cars in the Sim.

Ford GT GT3

– Season setups have been updated.

Ford Mustang FR500S

– Driver viewpoint has been adjusted to better suit VR.

Holden Commodore VF V8

– Construction and compound changes have been made to the vehicle tires. These changes should produce more realistic grip levels, improve drive-ability around the limit, increase degradation, and improve out lap grip in cold ambient conditions.

– Power steering has been increased to help balance this vehicle with similar cars in the Sim.

HPD ARX-01c

– This vehicle now uses PBR shaders.

– The color of the wheel rims for this vehicle can now be changed.

– Fixed an issue with the pivot of the right-front wheel.

Kia Optima

– Mirror quality has been improved.

Lotus 79

– This vehicle now uses PBR shaders.

– Fixed a corruption issue with the rear rim textures.

McLaren MP4-30

– We’ve implemented an alternative MGU-K deployment strategy. The internal combustion engine reaches full output at less than full throttle, and the MGU-K supplements smoothly between full engine output and full throttle at the pedal. The goal is to have smoother power delivery, and the hope is that the cost to efficiency of deployment is minimal. The throttle pedal position at which the engine reaches full output and the MGU-K begins to deploy is configurable by the user, and varies from 67.5% to 90% in 2.5% increments. Note that the old deployment smoothing strategy has been disabled.

Mercedes-AMG GT3

– Fixed a minor bug with the definition of the drivetrain components that was causing the portion of the drivetrain between the engine and clutch to have too much rotational inertia. This would cause the drivetrain to spin up the engine under very specific conditions.

– Fixed an issue where the fuel gauge needle would rotate incorrectly on opponents’ cars.

Pro Mazda

– Star Mazda has been officially renamed Pro Mazda!

– Star Mazda wing decal has been replaced with the Pro Mazda decal.

Ruf RT 12R Track

– Season setups have been updated.

SCCA Spec Racer Ford

– This vehicle now uses PBR shaders.

Silver Crown

– Season setups have been updated.

Skip Barber Formula 2000

– This vehicle now uses PBR shaders.

Street Stock

– Season setups have been updated.

Super Late Model

– Season setups have been updated.

V8 Supercar Ford Falcon circa 2012

– Construction and compound changes have been made to the vehicle tires. These changes should produce more realistic grip levels, improve drive-ability around the limit, increase degradation, and improve out lap grip in cold ambient conditions.

– Power steering has been increased to help balance this vehicle with similar cars in the Sim.

In Now Playing articles PC Gamer writers talk about the game currently dominating their spare time. Today Craig faces the race of his life.

The worst and most impossible thing has happened. My hands are actually sweating into my Halfords racing gloves. I know it’s absurd to be this worked up over an online race, and to have to wear gloves while sitting at my computer. The thing is, I’m on the grid directly behind Rubens Barrichello. The actual one. The actual F1 driver Rubens Barrichello.

I feel pressure in every iRacing race as it is. It’s a serious business where realism, clean racing and respect are key. Now I’m going to be battling someone everyone is excited to have on the server. It cannot be me who crashes into him. It must not.

“Oh great I’m behind Rubens. I’m not worried at all,” I drop into chat.

“Haha good luck” he replies. I’m instantly star struck, not so much dazzled by his celebrity status but rather by the amount of genuine respect I have for him. Rubens’ F1 career spanned nearly 20 years. He’s raced with the absolute best in actual motorsport and here we are on the grid. A racing legend, 18 other iRacers, and me sweating buckets into a pair of £10 mountain biking gloves—all waiting for the signal to go.

We’re racing Formula Renault cars at Mosport. It’s a track I love and the cars suit it well. They have characteristics of Formula One cars—single seat, big aerodynamic features, open wheel—but operate at a much lower speed.

The last major piece of the puzzle we need to look at before diving into building a setup are the three simplest things in the garage: ride heights. Older (and even some newer racing games) have a “Ride Height” adjustment in their setup garages, completely independent of the rest of the car. Anyone who’s ever worked on a car at all knows that simply breathing on part of the car in the wrong way can move the ride heights around, and iRacing included that extra bit of realism (some call it a “frustration”!) to their garage system. Where ride heights have been a set-and-forget setting in the past, completely ignoring them can run you into some major issues that may seem un-solvable. In addition, ride heights (and the requirements for those ride heights) are where every setup begins, so now that you [hopefully] know the rest, let’s look at the final variable!

Ride Heights

Ride heights are simply a measurement of how far a car is from the ground. In many cases, this is not the lowest point on the car, and while the ride heights may read as 3 inches (or 7.6cm…), there could be part of the car that is much lower, such as suspension components or body panels. In addition, most teams have their own way of measuring the car’s ride height, and it can vary from car to car. For road racing, ride heights can be measured in multiple places across multiple teams, even if they run the same car. It’s important to learn where these ride height points are measured so you know what you’re dealing with at each track. For oval racing, it’s a bit simpler, since most oval cars measure their ride heights at the frame rails at the bottom of the “door” panels. Below is a picture of the NASCAR Xfinity Camaro with the approximate front and rear ride height points highlighted. Keep in mind that the ride height is measured at the frame, not the skirt, in the garage!

Arrows mark the typical locations for ride height measurements on a stock car. Note that the arrows do not point to the skirt, but the approximate location of the frame rail. Also, note that parts of the car, like the splitter, are lower than the measured ride heights!

Ride heights can be determined in multiple ways, primarily dictated by the series rules. Almost every racing series has a minimum ride height rule in place, so setting the car at those minimums is often the way to go. Beyond the rules, track characteristics play into the necessary ride heights as well. If the track is bumpy, like Kentucky or Lime Rock, or has a lot of vertical loading changes, such as Zandvoort, higher ride heights may be necessary to keep the car from contacting the racing surface. On smoother tracks like Kansas or COTA, lower ride heights and a more aggressive aerodynamic attitude is possible. Setting the car too low can be an aerodynamic advantage, but on a rough track can cause an excessive loss of mechanical grip, and a loss in speed.

In some cases, minimum ride heights at all four corners is not the optimum situation for a given car. Testing will help you find what you like best, but some cars perform better with extra rake set in the car, or higher rear ride heights. This can provide an aerodynamic benefit, resulting in more front downforce and increased oversteer, while other cars may behave better with a flatter set of ride heights. For oval racing, it’s common to only have one corner set at the minimum ride height, typically the left-front corner, with the highest usually being the right-rear.

Removing the ride height rules (top image, 2013 season) in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series produced a dramatic change in how the cars sat when off the track (bottom image, 2016 season). Still, both cars looked remarkably similar when on-track. Both images from Michigan Speedway. (Cred. Jayski.com for images)

Your starting ride heights will often dictate the spring package you choose in your car. In every situation with every car on every track, we’d like the car to settle down and drop below the minimum required heights and “seal” off the bottom of the car, producing maximum downforce. Where we start the car in the garage tells us what we need to do to achieve the lower ride heights on track. If we have to start the car up higher for either track characteristics or rules, we’ll need a softer set of springs to allow it to drop under aerodynamic loads. Conversely, if we start the car lower, we’ll need stiffer springs to keep the car off the track surface.

Coil-binding and bump stops can go against those general rules, however, since we can start the car with a softer riding spring rate and wind up on a much stiffer rate after compression. This is most often used to circumvent and essentially ignore ride height rules by installing springs that will keep the car at legal ride heights when stopped, but utilize a stiffer spring package for better aerodynamics while on track. How you choose to set up your car is up to you, and I suggest trying multiple packages to see what fits your driving style best. When we start looking at putting together a spring package for a track in the coming weeks, we’ll consider all of these options and go into each in more detail.

Spring Perch Offset/Shock Collar Offset

The way to adjust ride heights on a stock car in both real life and iRacing is through spring mount offsets. On a “big spring” car such as the NASCAR Truck, Xfinity, Cup, and National cars, this is the Spring Perch Offset adjustment. On a coil-over car like the Late Models, Modifieds, and Legend cars, this is the Shock Collar Offset adjustment. In both adjustments, the upper mount is being moved up or down (in relation to the chassis). This moves the car up or down, adjusting the ride height in turn. Due to the tight packaging for modern race cars, it’s very difficult to get a good picture of how these are mounted in a car, however I did find a way to show it. Below are two images, the first is a NASCAR-style Big Spring front suspension assembly, the second is an AFCO racing coil-over shock. The first image is actually a display at Hendrick Motorsports’ Museum, so if you’re ever in the Charlotte area, you can head over there and take a look at it in more detail if you like!

A typical “Big Spring” front suspension arrangement (shock removed) used in all three of NASCAR’s major touring series, but increasingly less-common on short tracks. The upper perch is highlighted at the top of the spring and the lower perch is machined into the suspension arm, also known as the “bucket”. A “Zero” setting on the Spring Perch Offset would have the upper perch as far up as possible. (Click for larger image)

A typical racing coil-over. The shock collar (highlighted with arrow) is adjustable by a threaded shock body and can be moved up or down by rotating the collar. A “zero” setting in this would have the collar all the way at the top of the shock body. (Cred. Speedwaymotors.com for image, AFCO racing shock)

The Spring Perch/Shock Collar Offset value is typically a measurement from a “zero” value for that component. For both of these, the zero setting would be where the perch or collar is as far up as it can possibly go in the adjustment range. Values are typically negative, since they are a distance downward from the zero setting. Any positive value would be an adjustment of the perch upward, any negative would be an adjustment downward. So for instance, if we have a Spring Perch Offset of -2.500″, we’ve set the upper perch 2.5 inches below its highest possible adjustment. This does not mean the spring is compressed 2.5 inches, and in fact has no meaning for the spring at all, it’s simply a way to locate the upper perch or shock collar.

This adjustment has a further use in allowing various length springs to be used in the same car. Springs are rarely manufactured at a specific height across a range of rates, and auto racing is no exception unless you’re willing to shell out a lot of money. In fact, the only exception to this I know of is Legends racing, where springs are required to either be 8″ or 10″ long, with the shocks having an adjustment to accommodate either length. Still, those springs will vary in length by a few tenths of an inch, especially if they’re showing signs of fatigue. Whenever you change spring rates, it’s more than likely going to introduce a new spring length in the process. This will always change the ride height on that corner, and to correct that you must reset the ride height using whatever spring perch adjustment is available. Failing to return ride heights to what they were prior to a spring change can introduce a lot of “adjustments” that weren’t intended, from sway bar preload changes, alignment, aerodynamic changes, and spring preload changes all around the car, so while you intended to change just a spring, you wind up changing the entire car if you don’t reset the height on that corner. It’s very simple, just use the perch or collar to change the height on that one corner (not the other three!!), and only takes a few seconds but will save you a lot of time and headache.

Spring Deflections

Spring deflection doesn’t have a major influence on your chassis setup, but it does need to be covered. I figured that the perch/collar offset section would be the best place to put it, since the deflection is in the same realm of thought as the perch offset. I know some guys who build their setups specifically off of the spring deflection values, and I know others who do not. Both approaches have worked well, even in the same cars, and both approaches won championship in the same car in 2016. Personally, I’ve found that a certain arrangement of deflections have worked best for me, which I’ll explain after going over deflection in general.

Deflection, in an engineering and physics situation, is the distance anything has moved from a point of equilibrium. Equilibrium being where this object is when no external forces are applied to it, deflection would be how deformed that object is once a force is applied to it. For example, if we have a beam that is perfectly straight with zero forces applied to it, it would be said to be in equilibrium, since all forces acting on it are “equal”. When we go and push on one end of the beam, it will “deflect” from that state of rest. In a spring, its length without an external force is its length in equilibrium. If we compress it by one inch through an external force, we now have one inch of spring deflection.

Knowing what we learned about springs in earlier articles, these spring deflection values are a way to look at the static force being exerted by the spring in the garage. The deflection in the garage is represented by two values, typically in this format:

4.896 in of 7.850 in

The first number is how much our spring is deflected, the second number is how much travel is available in the spring. So, in this case, we have about 2.954″ of travel left in the spring before binding. The first number can be further used to determine the static force from the spring itself by simply multiplying it by the spring’s rate. So if the spring in this situation is a 500lb/in spring, 500 x 4.896 = 2448 pounds.

In my own experience, I’ve found that a certain arrangement of static forces wind up producing a setup that I like, while setups that don’t fit this arrangement don’t do what I would like for them to do. At the end of the 2016 Class B season, I gathered all the setup files I’d used in the full 33-race season and calculated the static forces from the springs on each car. I knew which setups I liked and which ones I didn’t like, and for each set of static forces I calculated a “crossweight” force in the same way you’d calculate crossweight on the corner weights themselves. For the setups I liked, this value showed as between 48% and 49%, while the setups I disliked the most were above 52%. This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, and the figure is hardly “real”, but the trend was surprising, and a prime example of why testing is important in finding what you like in the car. I can now take this information and apply it to 2017 with the intention to fix the tracks I struggled at this season.

Coanda gets a great start at Silverstone as trouble erupts in the back.

Round 2 of the Blancpain Endurance Series – the qualifying season for the Blancpain GT Series – saw the top GT3 teams battle for supremacy at Silverstone Circuit. With new drivers vying for entry into the premiere world championship GT3 series, the stakes are high during this short six-race season and the three-hour race at Silverstone was no exception.

With a total of 11 splits over the course of two days, sim racers from around the world put their best foot forward in an effort to claim the top step during Round 2. In the end, the honor belonged to VRS Coanda Simsport #81.

Coanda Strikes Again

Piloting the Audi R8 LMS, drivers David Williams, Mitchell DeJong, and Rocco Barone acquired 316 points while in route to their overall victory. All three of the Coanda drivers had more than one race start during the week of online racing but their main points haul came via the second race on Saturday. In that race, the Coanda trio began their race in third but cut their way through the field to take the lead.

Although the Coanda team was able to grab fourth in the previous round at Monza, their Round 2 victory has propelled them forward in the standings and they currently sit just five points behind the leaders in second. The team they’re trailing also happens to be the team which was their closest competitor at Silverstone.

ineX Racing

They were followed very closely by ineX Racing Red drivers Jack Sedgwick and Nathan Schartner. Driving the Ford GT GT3, the ineX Red duo began the online event from fifth but worked their way forward to finish just under .4s behind Coanda in second. Still, the ineX Red drivers grabbed 309 points in the process and maintain their overall lead after their win during Round 1.

Purely consistent

Taking the final step of the podium for Round 2 was Ivo Howeller, Maximillian Benecke, and Patrick Pitchler of Pure Racing Team Red. Racing the Audi R8, the trio scored 307 points after a second place finish during the Saturday morning race. This follows up a fifth place overall finish from the opening week at Monza.

Currently sitting in fifth on the leaderboard, Pure Racing Team Red will certainly be looking to maintain their present form as we head into Round 3.

Standings

As the series approaches the halfway point, ineX Racing Red currently holds the lead with 630 points. They’re followed very closely by VRS Coanda Simsport #81 (625) with ineX Racing Blue and Pure Racing Team Black tied for third with 617 points. Pure Racing Team Red rounds out the top-five with 613 points.

As Round 3 approaches, the series heads Circuit Zolder in what will be the shortest race of the season. At only 90 minutes, the online race will have more of a sprint feel to it when compared to the normal three-hour races. This shorter format could create more tension on the track and will force drivers to keep the big picture in mind. With the season only consisting of six races, teams and drivers can’t afford to make any mistakes if they hope to gain entry in the Blancpain GT Series.

Luza held-off a charging Reynolds at the line for the win at Auto Club Speedway.

Ryan Luza made a triumphant return to the NASCAR iRacing Pro Series Tuesday night, overcoming a speeding penalty on pit road to win in a near-photo finish with Blake Reynolds at Auto Club Speedway. Luza took the lead from Bobby Zalenski with nine laps remaining and held off Reynolds’ challenge on the final lap to capture his third NiPS win in as many starts. Zalenski faded to third at the checkers after leading a race-high 45 laps. Brian Schoenburg had a late charge to fourth and Nickolas Shelton came from eighteenth on the grid to finish fifth.

Zalenski started on pole but it only took five laps for Luza to come from third on the grid to take the lead from Zalenski off Turn Four. Luza began to stretch the lead as the first run wore on and looked to be untouchable up front, only for his race to nearly unravel when he came to pit road on Lap 32. After completing his routine service Luza sped on exit, necessitating a stop-and-go penalty.

Luza found himself in forty-first after the penalty, one lap down. A caution on Lap 44 allowed Luza to get back on the lead lap but with half the race and his track position gone, Luza would have to work to get anywhere close to the front.

Cautions also threatened to derail Luza’s march to the front, but despite two yellows shortly after Lap 50, Luza was all the way up to twenty-first as Reynolds and Zalenski paced the field out front. Two more cautions and two more restarts allowed Luza to rise inside the top fifteen, giving him a realistic shot at pulling off the upset.

Zalenski (16) started on pole and led 45 laps but was forced to settle for P3.

In a departure from previous weeks, the race to the finish featured a 22-lap green flag run, allowing sim racers with better long run cars to make some ground. Luza was one of these drivers as he restarted tenth on the final run. Within a lap, he was up to seventh and by fifteen laps to go he had moved all the way to third with just Zalenski and Schoenburg between him and the lead.

On Lap 88 Luza flew past Schoenburg and started to quickly reel in Zalenski. However, Reynolds was running faster lap times than Luza and the battle with Zalenski gave Reynolds the break he needed in hopes of stealing a win.

By the time Luza took the white flag, Reynolds was on his back bumper and looking for a way past. Luza held him off through Turns One and Two but a lapped car affected his line into Turn Three, giving Reynolds the upper hand. Reynolds took advantage at got a run on Luza coming off Turn Four but fell just short at the line, coming in .03 seconds behind the winner.

Schoenburg (5) has a ringside seat as Luza dives under Zalenski to grab the lead.

The victory pushed Luza back into the top ten in the NiPS points even though he has missed a race. Zalenski now holds the lead over Jarl Teien, who received crash damage and finished twenty-first. Jimmy Mullis follows in third, Marcus Richardson is fourth, and Joe Letteriello has turned in two wins to go along with four top-five finishes in the second and third splits to sit fifth in the standings.

With four weeks now in the books the NASCAR iRacing Pro Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway in two weeks for Week Five of the season. With Luza riding a hot streak it will be up to Zalenski, Reynolds, and the rest of the field to prevent him from jumping out to an early lead. Can anyone stop Luza’s dominance, or will he have to beat himself? Find out in two weeks on iRacing Live!